Curry

• 1. Etymological Origins

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  The English word curry traces its roots to the Dravidian language family, possibly arriving through Dutch carrijl or Portuguese caris. A 17th-century Portuguese cookbook described a spiced mixture called kari podi, eaten with boiled rice along the Coromandel Coast of southeast India. This term eventually became known as curry powder in English trade records. The first anglicized spelling, currey, appeared in Hannah Glasse's 1747 book The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. No single Dravidian language holds exclusive claim to the word, as Malayalam, Middle Kannada, Kodava, and Telugu all feature similar terms for spiced mixtures. The term does not originate from the curry tree, nor does it relate to the 1390s English cookbook term cury, which derives from the Middle French word cuire meaning to cook. Pat Chapman noted a similarity between curry and Karahi, an Indian cooking dish shaped like a wok, though she offered no evidence for this connection. The linguistic journey from Tamil ka to English curry reflects centuries of maritime trade and colonial contact. Future sections will explore how these early trade routes shaped the actual ingredients used in medieval Indian proto-curries.

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• 2. Pre-Columbian Proto-Curries

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  By 2600 BCE, people at Mohenjo-daro used mortar and pestle to grind cumin, fennel, garlic, ginger, mustard, black peppercorns, saffron, sesame seed, tamarind pods, and turmeric. Archaeologists identified residue of ginger, garlic, and turmeric in both skeletons and pottery shards from excavations in India, calling these early mixtures proto-curries. Black pepper has been known to Indian cooking since at least 2000 BCE, yet chili peppers were absent before Christopher Columbus. Sauces in India before the Columbian exchange could contain black pepper or long pepper to provide a little heat, but not chili, so they were not spicy hot by modern standards. Sambar, for example, was a dish of pigeon peas or lentils, flavoured with onions and mild spices. Chavundaraya II's 11th century Lokopakara used asafoetida, cumin, curry tree leaves, and mustard to flavour a dal. The 15th century Ni'matnāmah Naşir al-Dīn Shāhī described flavouring vegetables with asafoetida and sesame seeds fried in ghee, with lime juice and salt. These medieval dishes were diverse but never hot like many modern curries, as chili peppers were absent along with tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers and squashes. The arrival of spicy hot chili peppers from the Americas would later transform these mild proto-curries into the fiery sauces known today.

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• 3. Colonial Transformations

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  The establishment of the Portuguese trading centre in Goa in 1510 resulted in the introduction of chili peppers, tomatoes and potatoes to India from the Americas. Food culture scholar Lizzie Collingham suggests that the Portuguese in Goa heard and adopted words from local Dravidian languages, becoming caril or carree as transcribed by British travellers. An English translation of a Dutch book about travel in the East Indies mentioned a somewhat sour broth called Carriel, eaten with rice, in 1598. The Mughal Empire, established in the early 16th century, brought new and subtly spiced dishes, especially in the north. The Indo-Persian Mughal cuisine of emperor Akbar, as described in the Ain-i-Akbari, could cook aubergines with asafoetida, cardamom, cloves, coriander, ginger, lime juice, onions, and pepper. Curry was introduced to English cuisine from Anglo-Indian cooking in the 17th century, as spicy sauces were added to plain boiled and cooked meats. That cuisine was created in the British Raj when British wives or memsahibs instructed Indian cooks on the food they wanted, transforming many dishes in the process. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when there were few British women in India, British men often lived with Indian mistresses, acquiring the local customs, language, and food. Curry was first served in coffee houses in Britain from 1809. The resulting Anglo-Indian cuisine became eclectic, pan-Indian, lacking sophistication, embodying a passion for garnishes, and forming a coherent repertoire, but it was eaten only by the British. The idea of a curry is, in fact, a concept that the Europeans imposed on India's food culture, as Indians referred to their different dishes by specific names. This European imposition would later spread globally through migration and trade networks.

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• 4. Global Diaspora And Adaptation

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  Curry was carried to the Caribbean by Indian indentured workers in the British sugar industry during the 19th century. In 1886, 咖喱 (Gālí) appeared among the Chinese in Singapore, and Malay Chinese people then most likely brought curry to China. British traders introduced curry powder to Meiji-era Japan in the mid-19th century, where it was used to make Japanese curry, known as カレー, karē. Curry spread to other regions of Asia, with curry powder added to some dishes in the southern part of China. The former Portuguese colony of Macau has its own culinary traditions and curry dishes, including Galinha à portuguesa and curry crab. Portuguese sauce is a sauce flavoured with curry and thickened with coconut milk. Curry was popularized in Korean cuisine when Ottogi entered the Korean food industry with an imported curry powder in 1969. Korean curry powder contains spices including cardamom, chili, cinnamon, and turmeric. Curry tteokbokki is made of tteok, eomuk, eggs, vegetables, and gochujang, fermented red chili paste. In Vietnam, curry is known as cà ri, brought by French colonisers from their Indian outpost at Pondicherry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the south of the country, the Vietnamese adopted Madras curry powder and coconut milk as the basis of dishes such as chicken lemongrass curry. In the Philippines, a dish that may have been directly inspired by Indian curries is the oxtail stew kare-kare, possibly influenced by Sepoy expatriates during the brief British occupation of Manila from 1762 to 1764. These global adaptations show how curry became a fully international dish through migration and trade.

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• 5. Commercialization And Industrialization

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  Curry powder is a ready-prepared spice blend first sold by Indian merchants to European colonial traders, commercially available from the late 18th century. Brands such as Crosse & Blackwell and Sharwood's persisted to the present. Curry powder became a standard item in Anglo-Indian cuisine. In 1905, curry became affordable for the general population of Japan with the introduction of domestically produced curry powder. In the 1920s, the predecessors of today's well-known S&B Foods and House Foods began selling powdered curry powder. In the early 1900s, restaurants created various derivatives of curry rice. The first curry udon and curry soba were made in Tokyo or Osaka in 1904 or 1909. The first curry bread was introduced in 1927, and the first katsu curry in 1918 or 1921 or 1948. In 1945, the Oriental company developed a powdered instant curry roux, and in 1950, Bell Shokuhin company developed a block-shaped instant curry roux. In 1948, Japanese curry was used in school meals for the first time. In 1963, House Foods introduced Vermont Curry, an instant curry roux made with apples and honey, which became popular. This product brought sweetness to Japanese curry, which had been perceived as a spicy, adult dish, and made Japanese curry a favourite children's dish. Commercial mixes include curry pastes and Japanese-style curry roux in block or powder form. These industrial developments standardized flavors for international markets, making curry accessible to home cooks worldwide.

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• 6. Regional Variations And Styles

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  In Southeast Asia, curry often contains a spice paste and coconut milk. In India, the spices are fried in oil or ghee to create a paste; this may be combined with a water-based broth, or sometimes with milk or coconut milk. In China and Korea, curries are based on a commercial curry powder. Thai curries are called gaeng, and usually consist of meat, fish or vegetables in a sauce based on a paste made from chilies, onions or shallots, garlic, and shrimp paste. A few stir-fried Thai dishes use phong kari, an Indian style curry powder. In the West, Thai curries are often colour-coded green, yellow, and red, with green usually the mildest, red the hottest. Green curry is flavoured with green chili, coriander, kaffir lime, and basil; yellow, with yellow chili and turmeric; and red, with red chili. Burmese curries contains meat simmered in a curry paste containing onion, garlic, shrimp paste, tomato, and turmeric. Burmese curries are often mild, without chili, and somewhat oily. Malaysian curries have many varieties, but are often flavoured with cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, coconut milk, shallots, chili peppers, and garlic. In Indonesian cuisine especially in Bandung, there is a dish called lontong kari, a combined of lontong and beef yellow curry soup. In Javanese cuisine, kare rajungan, blue swimmer crab curry has become a delicacy of Tuban Regency, East Java. These regional variations demonstrate how local ingredients and traditions shape distinct curry styles across Asia.

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• 7. British National Identity

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  Curry is very popular in the United Kingdom, with a curry house in nearly every town. It was estimated that in 2016 there were 12,000 curry houses, employing 100,000 people and with annual combined sales of approximately £4.2 billion. The food offered is cooked to British taste, but with increasing demand for authentic Indian styles. In 2001, chicken tikka masala was described by the British foreign secretary Robin Cook as a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences. Curries in Britain are derived partly from India and partly from invention in local Indian restaurants. They vary from mildly-spiced to extremely hot, with names that are to an extent standardised across the country, but are often unknown in India. Zoe Perrett, writing for The Times of India, comments that anyone expecting traditional Indian cuisine from Brindian cuisine, a Bangla spin on Indian regional dishes, twisted still further to tempt British tastebuds, will be disappointed. Variants like Kashmir and Malaya curry add fruits like banana, lychees, and pineapple. In short, the food might be, Perrett writes, not Indian at all. Inexpensive curry kits, containing a packet of whole spices, a packet of spice paste, and a pouch of sauce, are sold in British supermarkets, enabling a curry of exceptional quality to be cooked quickly at home. This transformation of curry into a national dish reflects the complex history of colonialism, migration, and cultural adaptation in modern Britain.

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